On the last resident doctors’ London picket line (Photo: Guy Smallman)
While millions of people wait in pain for desperately needed operations, trained doctors are being forced to sign on as unemployed or to leave Britain altogether.
That’s the shocking truth behind the doctors’ training crisis wrecking the health service—and it’s a major factor in next week’s resident doctors’ strike.
The number of medical school graduates is rising, but places in advanced training are not keeping up. The mismatch sees thousands of doctors compete for posts and leaves many without any work at all.
It means that the NHS will continue to be short of vital specialists that coordinate care.
This year, some 33,100 doctors applied for just 12,800 training jobs. Only 68 percent of them said they had a medical job lined up by the summer, down from 81 percent last year.
Resident doctor Dennis told Socialist Worker the situation was “infuriating”.
“We have this weird situation now where we have doctors that have gone through six years of university,” he said. “Then two years as F1 and F2 doctors—which is stressful and intense—and then there’s absolutely no jobs for them.
“What a terrible waste. They might either end up working in a field they hadn’t really chosen or have to travel hundreds of miles away to work. But quite often they just leave the country and go and work in Australia and Canada.
“It’s really demoralising for people that have worked hard, are really passionate about the job and are committed to the NHS. Lots of doctors are extremely upset.”
While the number of applicants for specialist training increased by 30 percent, according to the doctors’ BMA union, the number of places rose by only 0.7 percent. And every year the problem is compounded as doctors reapply for the posts.
Dennis said low pay is adding to the problem. Labour’s health secretary Wes Streeting and the department of health regularly trumpet the 22.3 percent pay increase that resident doctors won last year.
But they hid that this made only a dent to the massive pay cut in real terms doctors have suffered over the past decade.
“That headline figure was a multi-year deal made during a period of high inflation. It only made a small reverse in the real terms pay cut we’ve endured,” says Dennis.
Bosses have added to the anger by claiming falsely that the number of doctors on strike is falling. NHS chief executive Sir Jim Mackey claimed in the summer that the action was collapsing. But recently released data for the strikes in November shows the opposite is true.
Nearly 11 percent more doctors joined the first day of the strike, and around 8 percent more joined on subsequent days.
“What Streeting and the department of health were saying was completely untrue,” Dennis said.
“And they got caught out cooking the numbers. In fact, the strike is now more popular than during the last round.
“That’s due in part to all those F1 and F2 doctors and medical students who are terrified about their prospects.
“By making hard statements against us, and manipulating the statistics, they are only exacerbating people’s feelings that we are undervalued and mistreated.
“So, it actually gets people’s backs up and makes the strikes even more well-supported.”
It is clear that this fight is not simply about doctors’ jobs and pay—it is for the future of the NHS as a public service. That’s why we all need to get behind the striking resident doctors and join their picket lines next week.
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